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Mercia
Mercia is the name of a loose collection of city states that exist on what was once known as the British Isles on Mobius. It is one of the older settlements on the planet that was formed when Mobians that did not want to live with Humans in Northamer traveled east to seek their own independent lives. Mercia operates under a system of monarchy with each city state possessing a king or a queen with a community of serfs living among them. Their technology level is noted to be poor with estimations of their tech being somewhere around the Iron Age. Very little electricity exists and any that does is typically the result of influence from the west. Mercians have very little idea of how this technology actually works though. Their relations with Northamer are relatively stable though with some city states supporting it and others being closed off to the west. The UNSC has very little presence in this part of the world. Description and History The history of Mercia begins with all things on Mobius with the Lost Million. After the accidental arrival of the colony fleet at Mobius and the subsequent settling on the planet, the rapidly advancing Mobians, born from interaction with the remains of the Xorda superweapon that decimated the original inhabitants, had to make a choice whether they wished to live with Human caretakers in cities such as Knothole and the surrounding region. Some said yes, but many said no and left to pursue their own destines. Of those that left, some chose to move north and some south. Of those that went to the east, the peoples decided to cross the ocean with little regard of what remained on the other side. This was not an instant thing. Over a century of having coastal cities, the booming population built great wooden ships and traveled the high seas to the British Isles. This land was uninhabited, though many ruins existed from the old Human habitation. From these ruins, some Mobians discovered evidence of museums, many of which held the ancient name of the land, one of which being Mercia. The Mobians simply continued to use the name for what they believed was the identity of Great Britain, choosing to name it Mercia from then on. Band structured formed incredibly quickly which progressed to tribal structures. Because they were not an established civilization, the early Mercian societies in the 24th Century were formed almost around the feral nature of the animals. They were crude and sometimes brutal. Leaders were chosen for their strengths. Each tribe developed their own form of language, but nearly all examples of such were degraded forms of the English language. These tribes grew to kingdoms quickly with leaders being chosen through combat against other tribes. They called themselves kings and queens, forming tribute structures for protection. It wasn't long before fortresses began to be built. These were constructed out of stone slabs mined from great quarries which are still worked for construction. Workers, and sometimes slaves mined gigantic slabs and moved them by use of log trains across the land to be processed at the cities themselves. These fortresses would later be castles for the kings and queens. Despite their willingness to move away from the Human populations that they were not fond of, Mercians took their religions. Christians and Jews were present in Mercia spreading their own religion among the population. This inadvertently created a society that more than slightly began to resemble the Middle Ages. The Mercians' general fear of the west and their technology made it more so. This was not to say that Mercians were xenophobic. Adventurers from the west came every now and again, and by the 27th Century, colonies from Northamer were established in Yurop and Afrika. These nations were also more advanced than the Mercians, placing them in a pincer of technology. Mercians could not understand the concept of manned flight nor firearms, so the presence of such was something of a fright for them. The other nations of the planet considered them not worth the trouble to try and work with and left them be. By the 31st Century, Mercians had still progressed very little in technology, appearing to be at a technology level rivaling that of 11th Century England. Castles were far more ornate and the monarchies were far more extravagant. Knights patrolled the realms and soldiers were adorned with plate and chain mail. Trade was far more common between kingdoms with some city states forming large coalitions with one another. Regardless, conquest was still common in this era with wars occurring between rival kingdoms. It is estimated that well over a hundred monarchies existed in all of the Mercian islands. What was more interesting was that the Echidnae of Albion, a nation to the Southeast across the Channel of Mercia, seemed to be influencing which nations would be successful or not. Advanced technology found their way into the hands of some armies, which included directed energy weapons - a concept that was utterly alien to the Mercians. Their current level of technology at best included small amounts of Arquebuses which were considered archaic when compared to the models used by the British in their own Middle Age. The Mercians, completely unfamiliar with how to construct or replace these weapons, used them until they were unable to function either through charge expenditure or mechanical failure, and simply beat their enemies with it. The Albioners were more than happy to resupply the Mercians with modern weaponry in exchange for prisoners for experiments which the Mercians were more than happy to supply. In the modern era of the 33rd Century, the one hundred city states of Mercia coalesced into 25 larger nations, each controlled by a singular royal family. One of the foremost nations was headed by a relative of Maximillian Acrorn, which the western king pushed for trade. The Mercian Acorns were not for the constant war, but diplomacy, choosing to take strong nations into their own. That being said, the Acorns of Mercia were strongly respected family, one of the few to have a surname from across the ocean. Many families created their own surnames which each citizen tended to have. In practice, a citizen identified themselves with a given name and a demonym, followed by a patronym or a matronym. For example, a citizen could identify themselves as 'Marcus Alluvia, son of Mac', with Alluvia being a kingdom of Mercia. The Acorns however did not follow this structure, choosing to have a Namesake. This made the Acorns equally as hated as they were loved. With the UNSC's arrival, the kingdoms of Mercia had something they hadn't experienced in well over four hundred years: Humanity. Overlanders were rarely to the Mercians due to their isolation to Northamer, but the Mercians on the other hand hadn't seen any form of Human for quite some time. Horror stories of Overlanders trickled into the population: tall pale and dark hairless creatures that fought without stop in gleaming armor. When Humans from Earth first explored Mercia, they were commonly thought of as Overlanders and attacked on sight. Even years later, this was commonly the case. Other communities were quite open to Humans. These were the nations that received much more trade. It is unknown how the arrival of the UNSC at Mobius will affect the political system or power structure in Mercia. Geography Much of Mercia consists of rolling hills in the south as well as towering mountains in the North. The area seems to have much of the original British Isles still clear and apparent, though surface area seems to have decreased slightly due to warming periods that occurred over the last 12,000 years following the Xorda attack. Mercia itself also has multiple islands that dot the channel between Mercia and Albion these are small nation states that were never really unified after the coalescence of the Kingdoms. More Kingdoms dot the south of Mercia, thanks to the location next to the ocean which increases trade all around the coastal cities. Less tend to dot the north thanks to the colder climates, but those that do establish themselves in the mountainous regions are typically well fortified and hard to conquer. Those that do capture these areas tend to hold them for hundreds of years thanks to the defensible positions. The mountains that dot the north are commonly called the Elders of the World. These snow-capped peaks have been very seldom explored even by the ruling families. List of Inhabitants * Porthos * Arthur * Robert O'Hedge * The High Sheriff * Amy Rose (emigrated to Northamer as a child) List of Appearances * Journals of Sally Acorn * Children of Mobius (First Appearance) Category:Country Category:Mobius